What Causes Pain Behind The Knee on Back of Leg?

Painful sensation does not only affect your knee cap and knee joints. In some cases, the pain stretches to the back of the kneecap on the back of leg. There are some risk factors associated with this back of leg knee pain, which is important to observe. This resulted pain might also reside in several types of aches. Some people undergo constant painful sensation on the back of the knee, while some others notice the swelling of this area resulted in an intermittent pain. In addition to these types of pain, another group of people suffer from a sharp pain at the back of the knee.

How to tell possible causes of pain behind the knee on back of leg?

Seeking the most probable cause of the pain is important, in that it gives clues about what to do as treatments and prevent it from causing worse complications. In order to determine the most probable cause of your pain behind the kneecap, you will need to think about how the pain started, the common resulted symptoms, and how the pain behaves. It is also important to think about how long has the pain reside on the area behind the kneecap. There are some ways with which people commonly describe the pain occurring behind their knee, such as discomfort, inflammation, burning, soreness, pain, and stiffness.

Possible causes of pain behind the knee on back of leg

There are some possible causes that may lead to pain behind the kneecap. Reading through the symptoms will help you determine which one out of these causes might be the one causing your behind the knee pain and thus, help find out the most possible cause of the problem.

Baker’s cyst

This is an inflammation of the fluid sac at the back of the knee. This is the most common cause of pain at the back of the knee. The inflamed fluid sac is filled with a buildup of synovial fluid behind the knee. This fluid lubricates the joint to reduce frictions between it and the cartilages. This is a condition that may cause an either intermittent pain or pain that come and go.

Symptoms of baker’s cyst include swelling of the area behind the knee that resembles a small water balloon, as well as tightness and pain behind the knee. If you are suffering from this knee problem, almost all activities employing the knee can be excruciatingly painful. Thus, you might have limited knee movements and pain sensation while bending, straightening the knee, walking, or kneeling.

Baker’s cyst can possibly occur following a forceful blow to the back of the knee and may be associated with arthritis.

Posterior cartilage tear

Pain at the posterior knee might also be linked to the posterior cartilage tear, which is tear at the back of cartilage lining the knee joint. If you are suffering from this, in addition to the difficulty of straightening the knee, you might also have problems walking and the issue of instability. You might also notice some swelling at the back of the knee that is accompanied by severe pain. Things that may cause posterior cartilage tear include a force through the knee, sudden twisting of the knee, and wear and tear of the posterior cartilage.

Arthritis

Another possible cause of pain behind the knee joint is arthritis, which is the changes in bone due to wear and tear (in osteoarthritis) or inflammation (in rheumatoid arthritis). More specific symptoms of arthritis in addition to pain behind the knee include morning stiffness, clicking of the knee joint, and reduced leg movements. This problem is also more common to be suffered by people over the age of 50. Cold weather may aggravate the problem and thus, make the pain behind the knee more excruciating.

Hamstring injury

Hamstring injury may also cause pain behind the knee on back of leg. You get hamstring injury after a tear of one of the hamstring muscles on the back of the thigh. The symptoms include sharp pain behind the knee when sudden movements are made. This pain might stay constantly, making a general achy pain of knee where the hamstring tendon attaches to the bone. Hamstring injury will trigger pain following sudden acceleration or deceleration when moving as well as when you bend the knee.

Knee sprain

While hamstring injury happens when one of the hamstring muscles is torn, knee sprain may cause pain behind the knee as a result of tear of the ligament in the knee. The symptoms include pain, swelling, and bruising behind the knee of the back of the leg, which is caused by sudden movements or a force through the knee. Knee sprain may cause almost all kinds of activities involving the knee rather painful.

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